Tuberculosis in Scottish military veterans: evidence from a retrospective cohort study of 57 000 veterans and 173 000 matched non-veterans

Bergman, Beverly P; Mackay, DF; Pell, Jill P.

doi:10.1136/jramc-2015-000610

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 18 publications

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“…In the second half of the century, a series of initiatives were taken, including pre-enrollment screening, the diagnosis and treatment of latent TB infections and the offer of BCG to skin-negative subjects who had not received BCG in infancy. Based on a careful study, it emerged that the risk of TB was higher in older veterans who entered the Army before the implementation of preventive measures [ 89 ]. In Italy, a study carried out on over 2000 soldiers in the 1990s found a prevalence of latent infections (tuberculin-positive, asymptomatic subjects) of over 6% [ 90 ], a percentage not dissimilar from the percentage of the US Army in the same period [ 91 ].…”

Section: Vaccine-preventable Infectious Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Historical Review of Military Medical Strategies for Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Battlefields to Global Health

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et al. 2022

Biomedicines

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The environmental conditions generated by war and characterized by poverty, undernutrition, stress, difficult access to safe water and food as well as lack of environmental and personal hygiene favor the spread of many infectious diseases. Epidemic typhus, plague, malaria, cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis, tetanus, and smallpox have nearly constantly accompanied wars, frequently deeply conditioning the outcome of battles/wars more than weapons and military strategy. At the end of the nineteenth century, with the birth of bacteriology, military medical researchers in Germany, the United Kingdom, and France were active in discovering the etiological agents of some diseases and in developing preventive vaccines. Emil von Behring, Ronald Ross and Charles Laveran, who were or served as military physicians, won the first, the second, and the seventh Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering passive anti-diphtheria/tetanus immunotherapy and for identifying mosquito Anopheline as a malaria vector and plasmodium as its etiological agent, respectively. Meanwhile, Major Walter Reed in the United States of America discovered the mosquito vector of yellow fever, thus paving the way for its prevention by vector control. In this work, the military relevance of some vaccine-preventable and non-vaccine-preventable infectious diseases, as well as of biological weapons, and the military contributions to their control will be described. Currently, the civil–military medical collaboration is getting closer and becoming interdependent, from research and development for the prevention of infectious diseases to disasters and emergencies management, as recently demonstrated in Ebola and Zika outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic, even with the high biocontainment aeromedical evacuation, in a sort of global health diplomacy.

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Section: Vaccine-preventable Infectious Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Historical Review of Military Medical Strategies for Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Battlefields to Global Health

Biselli

Nisini

Lista³

et al. 2022

Biomedicines

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Comparing negative health indicators in male and female veterans with the Canadian general population

et al. 2020

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IntroductionSex-based information on differences between Canadian veterans and the general population is important to understand veterans’ unique health needs and identify areas requiring further research. This study compared various health indicators in male and female veterans with their Canadian counterparts.MethodsHealth indicators for recent-era Regular Force veterans (released between 1998 and 2015) were obtained from the 2016 Life After Service Survey and compared with the general population in the 2015–16 Canadian Community Health Survey using a cross-sectional approach. Age-adjusted rates and 95% CIs were calculated for males and females separately.ResultsCompared with Canadians, veterans (both sexes) reported higher prevalence of fair or poor health and mental health, needing help with one or more activity of daily living, lifetime suicidal ideation and being diagnosed with mood and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, migraines, back problems, chronic pain, arthritis, ever having cancer, hearing problems, chronic pain and gastrointestinal problems. A higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease (all types) and high blood pressure was observed in male veterans compared with their Canadian counterparts. Within veterans only, males reported a higher prevalence of diagnosed hearing problems and cardiovascular disease compared with females; conversely females reported a higher prevalence of diagnosed migraines, mood, anxiety and gastrointestinal disorders, and needing help with activities of daily living. These sex differences are similar to the Canadian general population. Some similarities in reporting prevalence between male and female veterans (eg, fair or poor mental health, lifetime suicidal ideation, arthritis, asthma, lifetime cancer incidence, chronic pain and diabetes) were not observed in other Canadians.ConclusionMale and female veterans differed from comparable Canadians, and from each other, in various areas of health. Further research is needed to explore these findings, and veteran-based policies and services should consider sex differences.

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Age at entry to UK military service and long-term mental health

et al. 2021

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IntroductionIt has been suggested that ‘junior entry’ to the UK Armed Forces (prior to age 17.5 years) increases the risk of adverse mental health outcomes. We used data from a large cohort of veterans to examine long-term mental health outcomes in veterans by age at entry to the UK Armed Forces, compared with non-veterans.MethodsRetrospective cohort study of 78 157 veterans in Scotland, born between 1945 and 1995 and and 252 637 matched non-veterans, with up to 37 years follow-up, using Cox proportional hazard models to examine the association between veteran status and cumulative risk of major mental health disorder, stratified by birth cohort, and age at recruitment for the veterans.ResultsThe risk of mental health disorder in the veterans increased with age at entry, ranging from HR 1.12, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.18, p<0.001 for junior entrants to HR 1.37, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.80, p<0.001 for those aged 20–25 years at entry. The pattern was most marked for veterans born before 1960, and age at recruitment had little impact in recent birth cohorts. Post-traumatic stress disorder accounted for most of the observed differences. Younger age at recruitment was associated with longer service, median 7.4 years (IQR 3.0–14.7) compared with 5.6 years (IQR 2.1–11.7) for entrants aged 20–25 years.ConclusionWe found no evidence that early recruitment is associated with adverse impact on long-term mental health. Paradoxically, it was veterans who entered service at age 20–25 years who demonstrated increased risk, although this attenuated in more recent birth cohorts.

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Tuberculosis in Scottish military veterans: evidence from a retrospective cohort study of 57 000 veterans and 173 000 matched non-veterans

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

A Historical Review of Military Medical Strategies for Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Battlefields to Global Health

A Historical Review of Military Medical Strategies for Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Battlefields to Global Health

Comparing negative health indicators in male and female veterans with the Canadian general population

Age at entry to UK military service and long-term mental health

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